John 17:6-19
Looking up to heaven, Jesus prayed, "I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth."
The Sermon
This
gospel reading is set just before Jesus is captured by the soldiers
and sent to Pilate to be crucified. It is a long prayer of praise
and supplication to God the Father. In his prayer Jesus talks about
his unity with the Father and how he is not of this world. Jesus
petitions God to protect his disciples when he is gone because he
knows what lies ahead for them.
He
says, “ I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I
ask you to protect them from the evil one....As you have sent me into
the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I
sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.”
I
consider myself a follower of Jesus but I do not always feel
protected from the evil one (whoever that is). Sometimes I think I
would like to just be protected from myself. As I was pondering this
whole thing about the evil one I started reflecting on my study of
meditation. The purpose of spiritual meditation is to become one
with God. The translation of the word Yoga is to be yoked with God,
to become one with God.
One of
the first things you are taught when you learn to meditate is that
the mind is a very undisciplined beast. It wants to go here and
there and everywhere. The task in meditation is to rein it in but
not in any severe kind of way. In meditation you focus on one
spiritual thought and the undisciplined mind will look for all kinds
of distractions.(did I turn off the lights downstairs? Did I take my
medicine? What is on the agenda for tomorrow?) Every time the mind
wants to go in another direction you gently bring it back to that one
spiritual thought. In a ten or twenty minute meditation the mind may
look for distractions in a hundred different ways but you always
gently bring it back.
Eventually,
the mind gives up and for a brief moment in time you are
rewarded with a sense of God's presence. You are focused. You are
in the moment. It is such an all consuming feeling that you really do
feel otherworldly. Of course, you must come back.
We do
live in a physical world that has so many distractions. Our task is
to live in this world and attend to the needs the world. At the same
time we must never lose our moral compass. It is a lot like learning
to meditate. You get distracted. You bring yourself back. You get
distracted again. You bring yourself back again. The world is
filled with all kinds of pressing matters that can send us off
course. So.....be gentle on your self but at the same time bring
back into focus where you really want to be on this spiritual
journey. That is the truth of Jesus message and the promise that by
following his teaching of love we too are one with the Father.
Peace,
Fr. Fred
Fr. Fred
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